Lethal Weapon Season 2 is a go, with Fox confirming another season of unhinged buddy cop action.
Fox might have a (demonstrably justifiable) hair-trigger reputation when it comes to cancelling numerous shows they once ostentatiously heralded. However, one series that won’t be in their repertory line of fire this season is Lethal Weapon. While the announcement of a series adapting the iconic Mel Gibson/Danny Glover buddy cop action flicks was met with a collective “meh,” it has managed to impress audiences with slick cast chemistry, yielding steady ratings. Thus, a sophomore season is officially on schedule.
Fox has announced the renewal of Lethal Weapon for Season 2, giving the action/comedy series a full and proper 22-episode order. The buddy cop adaptation series – starring Clayne Crawford as the unhinged Martin Riggs and Damon Wayans as the cautious Roger Murtaugh – reaped critical praise and ratings achievements as the network’s highest-rated premiere in two years (8 million viewers), with minimal drop-off in the ensuing episodes. As Fox Entertainment president David Madden expresses in a statement:
“Lethal Weapon continues to fire on all cylinders. Every week, it delivers a big, fun rollercoaster ride, but also remains touchingly human and genuinely emotional, and that’s due to the chemistry that’s developed not only between Damon Wayans and Clayne Crawford, but the entire cast.”
Just one month after its September 2016 debut, Lethal Weapon garnered a Season 1 extension to 18 episodes from its initial 11. With the show's post-New-Year numbers continuing to hold steady around 6 million viewers, its early renewal was not exactly a surprise, joining it with the also-early-renewed Biblically-themed DC Comics-adapted Fox supernatural crime procedural Lucifer.
Lethal Weapon, adapted by Matthew Miller (Forever, The 100, Chuck), pays homage to the classic 1980’s/1990’s action series while firmly establishing its own identity. While the buddy cop dynamic between Crawford’s Riggs and Wayans’s Murtaugh remains at the center, the traditional arc of their unlikely friendship also plays well against the supporting cast like Murtaugh’s family, notably wife Trish (Keesha Sharp), police captain Brooks Avery (Kevin Rahm), geeky forensics man Scorsese (Johnathan Fernandez), and police shrink Maureen Cahill (Jordana Brewster). Moreover, the February 15 episode introduced the television version of the seedy, but good-hearted Leo Getz, Joe Pesci’s movie character reinvented as a Saul-Goodman-esque bus-bench lawyer played by Thomas Lennon.
Lethal Weapon currently airs on Fox on Wednesday nights.